"Live At Leeds," a frenzied recapitulation of the Who’s frenzied career, clearly demonstrates several already suspected things: John Entwhistle is really one of the very best bass players in the business; Keith Moon’s sense of rhythmic tensions and explosions is really a sense, not a studio trick; Peter Townshend’s flair for dynamics has yet to be matched; and that, ultimately, the Who are really one of the toughest rock and roll bands in the world.

The first time I heard this album, I hated it.

Before the review copy even arrived, I went out and bought the LP. Promises of a live album had come from the Who for a long time. Many efforts were scraped. They always claimed that the quality wasn’t good enough. So when "Live At Leeds" came out, one couldn’t help to expect anything but the finest.

AT FIRST, the album came on like a tape recording of the local band down the street running through their Led Zeppelin repertoire. Very much a disappointment, to understate what I thought at the time.

But you have to remember two things about the Who when you play this record. They deal in musical subtleties, and they play very loud.

At regular volume, the crowd response seems almost nil, and the music sounds badly mixed. Just as an experiment, I yanked up the volume to a seemingly excessive number. Bam! Like magic, the music hit home. Recorded at a very high level, "Live at Leeds" must be played very loud. Only this way can the dynamics, the tensions, the explosions, the toughness, and most important, the subtleties, which are the essences of the Who, be appreciated.

The set opens with "Young Man Blues." Roger Daltry has never sung with a sterner conviction in his recording career. What becomes obvious, as the band runs through numbers like "Summertime Blues," "Shakin’ All Over," and "My Generation" is that Daltry makes his voice play the part of the role he is singing. In "Young Man," Daltry is an American Black lamenting the lapse of the young buck’s position in society. He doesn’t copy any style. He plays the part. In "Summertime Blues," he is the nasal-voiced frustrated teenager. In "My Generation," he is the stuttering, mod pill-head.

The album serves as a nutshell report of the band from the beginning. They do very early recordings such as "Substitute" to snatches from "Tommy," like a progress report. The rest are rock and roll stage standards, including "Magic Bus."

THE GEM OF the album is a magnificent version of "Shakin’ All Over." Entwhistle and Moon anchor the song, while Townshend and Daltry send out shattering pieces of stunning chord patterns and shivery vocal phrases. In this song, as in all the others, Townshend sets the pattern for the rest of the band to follow. He’ll rip off a Clapton-ish flurry of notes, easing off gradually to chop gently at a chord. Moon gets the message, and begins to build tension along with Entwhistle. Townshend will begin to run away with a new riff, a new tone, complimented by Moon and Entwhistle every step of the way. Daltry will get his cue from the band and tie everything together.

Ringo Starr once said that the Who ".... are the most together band in England." He’s not wrong. The Who are no less than amazing in the way they work with each other. You’ll never find a better recorded attestation to this than "Live At Leeds." All the beauty, hard and soft, that is the Who, is on here. All the dedication and excitement that makes great rock and roll worth listening to is here also.